My angelic baby is now a nightmare!

[mandbaby]

My little girl is 6 months old and is my third DC. (I have DS1 and DS2 aged 5 and 3). When DD was born, I was careful not to fall into any "traps" and as such she was a brilliant sleeper: she'd self settle anywhere and would wake, at most, once a night for a feed, and would often sleep for 8-10 hours before waking. Then, the night she turned 12 weeks old, she woke every hour. I didn't know the reason but suspected a cold. She then had injections, another cold, in addition to teething... But since that 12 week mark, I am regularly getting up to her at least 3 times a night. If she only gets me up twice, I consider that a good night.

Last night, we saw every hour. I've given her teething powders, calpol, anbusol on her gums. If I pick her up, she falls asleep almost instantly which makes me think it's not pain or hunger - but simply because she knows I will.

When she was born, we put her in her own bedroom straight away, but because it was our spare room and had a double bed in there, I slept in her room with her from day 1 (mainly so as not to disturb DH who has a tough job). I'm still in her room with her now! I don't want to sleep in my own room because having to walk up a flight of stairs to get to her room 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 times a night doesn't exactly float my boat.

I mainly BF, but do give her a bottle after her bath. She polishes off 7-8oz and often has a top-up off me in the darkness of her bedroom before I put her down. If I feed her again at about 11-12, and then again at anytime between 2 and 4, she doesn't need to be fed again until we're up for the day - and even then, she doesn't cry to be fed. She doesn't wake up at 6.30-7 hungry. She wakes up in a lovely mood and will kick about under a play gym for an hour before I feed her.

Is 6 months too young for CC? What can I do to break this cycle of waking so often? She has a dummy and sometimes she will take her dummy to go back to sleep and sometimes she's not interested and wants to be picked up. I'm exhausted and with two under-5s to look after, it's becoming unbearable.

It's now 4hrs since she went to bed and she's woken up crying SIX times.

Does she go down awake after the last feed?

I wouldn't do CC at this age, but maybe try shushing/patting etc in the cot without picking her up. Only pick her up if she gets really upset and then put her down again as soon as she calms down.

Have you started weaning recently? This can affect a baby's night time sleeping for lots of reasons.

Try not to allow her milk intake to reduce, she still needs as much as before solids were introduced. The reduction in calories can result in night wakings, so keep up the milk feeds and supplement with solids, rather than the other way around.

Weaning (especially when previously breastfed) can also drastically change digestion and poo - constipation, dehydration, acid reflux - all sorts of digestive issues can develop when affect night times.

I agree that your baby is too young for being left to cry, I wouldn't consider that kind of harsh sleep training until past 12 months. Shush Pat may help, as the previous poster mentioned.

No, we only started weaning two days ago - we're doing BLW. And at 7pm she goes down awake more often than not no problem.

Have you tried lifting her and giving a bottle before you (or your DH) go to bed, say 11pm ish? It does sound like hunger

If my DD was waking every hour through the night, I'd feed at every one in the hope if getting more sleep.

On the "good" nights when she only wakes 2 or 3 times, I do feed her every time. But quite often, especially at the last waking around 4 or 5am, she doesn't want it and lies in my arms cooing and blowing raspberries. The amount of sleep she gets in the day has no bearing on the night time either. There have been days where she's perhaps only napped for 20-30 mins and days where she's had closer to 3 hours. Like I said in my first post, she used to self settle for naps. Now, she screams and cries until she's picked up and then buries her face into my neck, twirls my hair then calmly and quietly falls asleep.

It is not unusual that babies need nothing in order to sleep for those "fourth trimester" newborn weeks up to 12 weeks old. As long as you have feeding sorted in those early weeks, sleeping usually is an easy affair, as you found.

It is after those early weeks have passed that sleep ques and comforts are needed and established. There is nothing unusual that an easily settled newborn started needing help to get to sleep as she moved out of the newborn phase.

"she screams and cries until she's picked up and then buries her face into my neck, twirls my hair then calmly and quietly falls asleep"

Sound to me like you are her comfort sleep association, in that case. At 6 months old it is quite hard work to change or establish new sleep associations. It is do-able at this age though, it will definitely be harder to break this association by 12 months old.

Being picked up and held by you seems to be what she wants in order to get to sleep, it is her association. There is no easy way to break this association, it will cause upset.

Have you looked into techniques like Shush Pat or Pick up, Put Down?

If you've not already, I'd recommend having her cot right next to you in bed, to make life easier for yourself when settling and feeding her. Maybe try co-sleeping as a means to cope.

We did co-sleep up until a month ago and even now we still share a room (my bed is right next to her cot). It's frustrating because she is capable of falling asleep without me - she does this at 7pm and sometimes in the middle of the night, after a big feed if she's woken completely up, she will sometimes lie there cooing and "talking" then gently drift off by herself. But daytimes are a different matter!

My dd recently turned 12 weeks and exactly the same happened to me, good sleeper turned hourly waking. I'm yet to discover the answer :-/

12 weeks is a huge growth spurt Kate. Are you breastfeeding? You may need to do a lot of cluster feeding to get your supply up.